THE VILLAGE

This is the Chocolate Factory! Here you learn all about chocolate and candy-making, including bean-to-bar, tempering, ganaches, using cocoa powder, enrobing, and making other kinds of candy and treats!

This is the main baking and pastry school, and this is where you’ll start on your journey in the baking world. After completing this course you will have access to specialty buildings such as  the Chocolate Factory, Pies and Cookies, Breads & Viennoiserie, Frozen Desserts, and the Decorating Depot.

The Farm is where you’ll learn about growing food and raising animals that are part of our food system, sustainability, hydroponics, bees and pollination, and other important areas about how we get our food and how we can help make our food system better for us and the planet.

This is where you’ll interact with fellow students and other chefs. Grab a slice and exchange ideas, ask and answer questions, and compare recipes, ideas, questions, photos of what you’ve made, and more.

Cheese is just the beginning. Here you learn about all kinds of fermentation, including kimchi, pickles, and sauerkraut, breads, vanilla & chocolate, yogurt, and other culinary delights.

This area has homes of famous chefs who will teach you recipes, technique, and cooking secrets. This is one of the most exciting areas of town!

Come to the Library to find articles, links to book, videos, and other research when you are ready to do a deep dive into a subject area, get inspired, or further explore.

Come to the Grocery Store to learn about produce, meats, fish, and staples. Learn what’s in foods, how to shop, how to store things, how long they keep, nutrition, and many other super useful facts that will help make you a culinary wizard.

The Gym is where you learn about exercise, nutrition, health, safety, and everything else about how to keep yourself feeling great and happy.

When you need help, Jacques is here to guide you. Learn all about how to make the most of the Chef’s Village and get answers if you are stuck or just want to make sure you’ve explored every nook.

Come to the Bakery to learn all about how the professionals create pastries, breads, cakes, pies, and other edible arts!

In this chilly abode you’ll learn all about frozen desserts, from making a crème Anglaise to churning ice cream, making classic gelato, sherbets, soft-serve, terrines, frozen yogurts, ice cream sandwiches, baked Alaska, and much more.

In the Commercial Kitchen you’ll learn about the tools and techniques in a professional kitchen. This area is both for people who want to enter (or already work in) the professional world and those who just want to bring some of these secrets into their own kitchen.

The Decorating Depot is the place to learn all about piping, mirror glaze, fondant, pastillage, pulled sugar and isomalt, chocolate curls, flowers and leaves, molding chocolate, and other fancy stuff.

Do you love to cook outdoors? BBQ? Rotisserie? Wood-fired pizza? In this special school you’ll learn all about cooking with smoke, outdoor grills, pizza ovens, barbecues, and other techniques cooking with fire and smoke, indoor and out.

All of the learning here at the Chef’s Village is grounded in science, but for those who really want to understand what’s going on, come to the science center to explore any topic. Want to really understand what’s going on with chocolate and tempering? Learn about emulsions and gels? Sugar? Molecular gastronomy? When you leave here your cooking will be at a new level, and you will get why foods work the way they do.

After you’ve mastered the basics, come to the baking specialty building to do a deep dive into cookies, pies, tarts, cakes, and other baked comestibles. Master pâte a choux, pastry cream, and all types of creams.

In this bread specialty area you’ll learn about yeast breads, yeasted pastries (“Viennoiserie”), non-yeast-leavened breads (such as pancakes and muffins), and even pizza dough.

Head off the road onto this dusty lot to learn about authentic street tacos, food truck foods, and street cuisines from many countries. I recommend the arrachera.

You found the secret Castle! What could this be? Hmmm…..

Bring your bathing suit and get ready to learn all about our oceans, rivers, and lakes, the food we get from them, and how we can help protect them. Learn why some fish smell fishy and how to cook these special and wonderful foods.

Welcome to Chef’s Village. We built this village to allow everyone to learn about cooking, food, sustainability, and other areas of our food system. Tuition rates are based on your self-reported ability to pay. Your personal financial situation will never be a barrier to participation in the Chef’s Village. We also have scholarship programs, including free tuition and starter sets of kitchen tools such as instant-read thermometers and digital scales. Contact Us if you would like to apply for a scholarship.

The Culinary Kitchen is where you’ll learn the basics of cooking. This area will give you the foundation you need to explore all the wonders that Chef’s Village has to teach you, and you’ll be surprised the things you can do by the end of this section.

You’ve discovered one of the easter eggs! There are 100 hidden places throughout Chef’s Village where you’ll discover one of the secrets to the (100) pleats on Jacques’ chef hat (“toque”). You’ll also pick up a bonus recipe for each one you find. Find all of them to unlock the best prize ever in the history of the world! OK, maybe I’m egg-zadjerating just a little.

This recreation area teaches you all about flavor with sauces, dips, drinks, soups, and more.